“You Will See Clearly” by
Rev. Paul Berghout (@FatherPB)
Piety
Jesus said to his
disciples: “Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so
will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out
to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not
perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let
me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see
clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:1-5
Study
In Granville, Ohio,
there was a woman who was going through some difficult times. She thought that
she would never experience joy in her life. However, one day when she was
sitting in her kitchen crying, she noticed a small sparrow.
Somehow it had gotten
into her kitchen. Anyhow she opened the door, thinking the sparrow would fly
out.
There was a window above
the door.
And instead of flying
out through the open door, the sparrow kept trying to fly out through the
closed window.
Several times the
sparrow flew at the closed window and smacked itself into it until it got so
weak it could no longer fly; it only could walk.
But the story has a
happy ending. When it could no longer fly, it simply walked out the door to
freedom.
This week, our
Scriptures from Matthew continue just as Jesus continues his challenge to
follow him more completely.
“Stop judging that you may not be
judged.”
“Do to others whatever you would have
them do to you.”
“Beware of false prophets, who come to
you in sheep’s clothing.”
“Who do you say that I am?”
We fly into a closed
window whenever we disconnect from our higher consciousness or awareness of the
immense value of our immortal soul. The biggest obstacle to following Jesus’
commands may be ourselves. And temptation.
To illustrate: In 1000
AD, 186 years after the death of Emperor Charlemagne, officials of Emperor Otto
re-opened Charlemagne’s tomb. They found that the people buried Charlemagne just
as he previously specified before he died.
Charlemagne left
instructions about how he wanted them to bury him:
in a room in the Palace Chapel, seated
upright on his marble throne, dressed in his imperial purple robes, a crown on
his head, and a scepter in his hand and with the Bible on his knee opened to
Mark 8:36.
When they opened the
tomb, indeed on his knee lay the Holy Scriptures, with a cold, lifeless finger
that points to Mark 8:36, which reads: “For what shall it profit a man, if he
shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Only by our awareness
that our body and life on earth is of relative value, compared to the absolute
good of eternal life, will we then have no fear of human agents of persecution.
Men can impose suffering and death on the body but cannot force spiritual death
on the soul (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible).
We walk out the door to
freedom when we realize that there is nothing that either we do, or anyone can
do to us, that will stay concealed -- everything will be revealed, and there is
no secret that will not be known. (Matthew 10:26).
How and why do I hide my
true self from others? What secret parts of my life do I need to bring to God
for healing?
“Do not be afraid of
those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one
who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” (Matthew 10:28)
Sin is the only thing to
fear, and since Satan deceives and tempts souls into sin, he should be feared
and resisted as our worst enemy.
Secondly, some sparrows
do not survive flying into a closed window, even once. “Yet not one of them
falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.” (Matthew 10:29).
As Julian of Norwich
wrote in her vision of the hazelnut, “I marveled how it might last, for it
seemed it might suddenly have sunk into nothing because of its littleness. And
I was answered in my understanding: ‘It lasts and ever shall because God loves
it.’”
For example, Rabbi
Yitzchak Vorst spoke of he and his wife losing a child in an accident.
When my wife and I returned from the
hospital, it was evening. Later that same evening, a friend came to visit us.
In his attempt to console us, he told us that earlier in his life, he too had
lost a child.
Yet his words did not penetrate. I had
no feelings left. I could not think straight. We just sat there, my wife and I,
with only one thought: Why...? Why...?
In my mind, helplessly, I tried to
turn the clock back. If I would take care that my son did not go outside, then
he would not be hit by that car. Then we would not ever have had to go to the
hospital, and he would be snug asleep.
No, it was no use. It just made no
sense. Not long before, I had tried to comfort a woman whose husband was killed
in an accident. I explained to her that
she should not blame herself, as she probably did. She sent her husband
shopping, and on his way back, he was run over. So, she tended to dwell on the
following regret: If only I had not sent him. If only I had asked someone else.
Then... then... In this way, I thought she was blaming herself.
I had tried to argue her out of this
reasoning. I explained to her that her husband would have died at that very
same moment, even if she had not sent him shopping. His time had come. Death is
an event in which God “does not leave to chance.” Everything is Divine
Providence; everything is orchestrated by Him, down to the smallest detail. If
we have any awareness of God’s reality, we understand that such a drastic event
as dying cannot be a matter of chance. All this, I explained to the woman, and
she was grateful. “You are the first one who has said something sensible,” she
told me.
Should
all this not apply to us as well?” the rabbi asked.
Pure love gives the soul
strength at the very moment of dying. [Diary of St. Faustina 324]
On January 28, 1938, St.
Faustina wrote: “Today the Lord said to me, ‘My daughter, write down these
words: All those souls who will glorify My mercy and spread its worship,
encouraging others to trust in My mercy, will not experience terror at the hour
of death. My mercy will shield them in that final battle.’” (Diary, 1540).
God’s providence consists
of leading things to their ends, including human beings.
But he wills to do so
through intermediaries, or secondary causes.
Action
That woman in Granville,
Ohio, who was crying when she was watching that sparrow trying to fly out of a
closed window, used that as a sign to snap out of her self-pity.
God calls us humans to
choose good over evil because such moral choices constitute our good moral
character, which belongs to our perfection. (see Summa, St. Thomas Aquinas ST
1:22:1).
“Surely, it’s a higher
destiny “to receive our final beatitude as the fruit of our labors and as the
recompense of a hard-won victory...than to receive it without any effort on our
part,” in cooperation with God’s grace. (George Hayward Joyce, Principles of
Natural Theology, ch. 17).
Yesterday on Father’s
Day (and every day), fathers can be an instrumental cause in leading their
children to Jesus and eternal life.
Jesus called his
Heavenly Father—Abba, Daddy.
Ryan Reynolds, an actor,
said that “Being a dad isn’t just about eating gummy bears as your wife gives
birth. It means being comfortable with the word hero.”
Fathers: You matter a
lot in your family. With you in their lives, your children will do better in
school and life.
Your leadership is critical.
Don’t leave the family’s faith life solely to your wife.
Go to Mass with your
children, pray together regularly at home, read the Sunday Gospel as a family
before Mass, and work-in a regular Rosary. The ultimate role of a father is to
help his children get to heaven. The benefits are eternal, and the journey
starts today.
Amen.
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